In early May, the neurotoxic effects of the heavy metal mercury made news when outlets reported that 2024 U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in 2012 that he experienced cognitive issues such as memory loss due to mercury poisoning, likely from a diet heavy in tuna.
In early May, the neurotoxic effects of the heavy metal mercury made news when outlets reported that 2024 U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in 2012 that he experienced cognitive issues such as memory loss due to mercury poisoning, likely from a diet heavy in tuna.
Now, a new study from researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that a poorly understood, highly toxic form of mercury, called dimethylmercury, may be a significant source of monomethylmercury off the California coast. Monomethylmercury is the form known to accumulate in seafood and sicken people.
The findings, published June 7 in Environmental Science and Technology, are an essential step toward mapping the sources of monomethylmercury in the oceans. Understanding the sources of the compound is also key to predicting how quickly concentrations of the toxin might decline in marine food webs if human activities that release mercury, such as burning coal and artisanal gold mining, are curtailed.
Read more at: University of California - San Diego
CTD instrument used to collect water samples. (Photo Credit: Rob Lampe)
